For all the resources that businesses pour into driving retail traffic, sometimes it just takes one loyal customer willing to spread the word.

Even if your business is an imaginary arcade.

Caine’s Arcade – the short film about 9-year-old Caine Monroy creating and promoting a homemade arcade in his father’s auto parts store – has gone from a cute neighborhood story to a viral sensation to a full blown (or overblown) tale of entrepreneurial success.

The video and all the buzz that followed came from Nirvan Mullick, a filmmaker that happened upon Caine’s Arcade while buying parts for his ’96 Toyota Corolla. He stopped in to play the games, had fun, and decided to push the full weight of his social media reach into sharing his fun with others.

Now, with over $160k (and counting) raised for Caine’s scholarship fund, the Arcade is achieving the kind of notoriety most (real) small businesses can only dream of. And all it took was leftover cardboard and someone to play along.